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Elon Musk

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1. Known for: Co-founder of Zip2 and X.com; founder of SpaceX, the Boring Company, and xAI; CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
2. Tesla role: Major funder from 2004; CEO and product architect from 2008.
3. SpaceX role: Founder, CEO and chief engineer since 2002.
4. Twitter / X: Acquired Twitter in 2022; platform rebranded as X in 2023.
5. DOGE: Served as Senior Advisor to the President and was the de facto head of DOGE from January to May 2025.
6. SpaceX IPO: Completed June 2026 at $135 a share, valuing SpaceX at about $1.77 trillion.
7. Net worth: US$922.7 billion, the highest in the world (Forbes real-time estimate, 20 October 2026)
8. Education: Bachelor's degree, University of Pennsylvania; brief enrollment at Stanford in 1995.
9. Early life and education
10. Musk left South Africa in the late 1980s, citing his unwillingness to do compulsory military service under apartheid. Sources differ on when he obtained his Canadian passport: Wikipedia says he obtained it in 1989 on emigrating, while Britannica says he received it in 1988, before leaving South Africa.
11. In 1992 he transferred from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, to the University of Pennsylvania. He enrolled in a graduate physics program at Stanford University in 1995 but left after two days.
12. Zip2 and X.com
13. Musk co-founded the web software company Zip2 in 1995, and the computer manufacturer Compaq bought it in 1999 for $307 million.
14. After the sale of Zip2, Musk co-founded the online financial services company X.com. In March 2000, X.com combined with Confinity to create PayPal, which eBay acquired in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
15. SpaceX
16. Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2002 with the stated aim of building more affordable rockets.
17. Reusable rockets TED, 2017: Musk on landing and reflying Falcon 9 boosters, and why reuse must be rapid and complete.
18. SpaceX's first rocket, Falcon 1, first launched in 2006, followed by Falcon 9 in 2010 and Falcon Heavy in 2018. In May 2019 the company sent its first group of Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, and in 2020 Crew Dragon carried the astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the International Space Station.
19. Starlink beta testing began in 2020, and commercial service followed in 2021. SpaceX reported more than five million Starlink subscribers by 2025, and by January 2026 there were 9,633 operational Starlink satellites in orbit, the majority of all working satellites. In 2024 SpaceX carried out more than half of the world's orbital launches.
20. In June 2026, SpaceX went public at $135 a share, valuing the company at about $1.77 trillion.
21. Falcon Heavy Test Flight SpaceX's recording of the Falcon Heavy test flight, streamed live on its YouTube channel on 6 February 2018, from the last ten seconds of the countdown to liftoff.
22. Tesla
23. In 2004 Musk became a major funder of Tesla Motors, an electric-car company founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Tesla introduced its first car, the Roadster, in 2006, and Musk became its CEO and product architect in 2008.
24. Tesla's initial public offering in 2010 raised about $226 million, and the company introduced the Model S sedan in 2012.
25. In November 2025, Tesla's board approved a 10-year pay package for Musk worth up to $1 trillion, tied to milestones that include a market capitalization of about $8.5 trillion.
26. Other companies
27. Musk co-founded the artificial-intelligence research organization OpenAI in 2015. According to Britannica, in 2018 Musk proposed taking control of OpenAI to compete more directly with Google; Sam Altman declined and Musk left the organization.
28. He co-founded the neurotechnology company Neuralink in 2016 and founded the Boring Company, a tunnel-construction firm, in 2017.
29. Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, and it was rebranded as X in 2023. He founded the artificial-intelligence company xAI in 2023, and xAI became a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2026.
30. Elon Musk: The future we're building -- and boring | TED TED's recording of Musk's 2017 talk, from Chris Anderson's first question, "Why are you boring?", and Musk's answer about tunnels under Los Angeles.
31. Citizenship and political activity
32. Musk became a United States citizen in 2002. He was the largest donor in the 2024 United States presidential election and supported Donald Trump.
33. After Trump's inauguration in January 2025, Musk served as Senior Advisor to the President and was the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He left the Trump administration in May 2025.
34. Wealth
35. Musk became the first person reported to have a net worth of one trillion U.S. dollars when SpaceX completed its IPO in June 2026. Forbes reported that he became the world's first trillionaire on 12 June 2026, the day SpaceX went public. A collapse in SpaceX's stock brought him back under the trillion-dollar threshold by the following month, and Forbes estimated his net worth at US$864 billion as of 14 August 2026.
36. 1988: Obtained Canadian passport, according to Britannica.
37. 1989: Emigrated from South Africa to Canada; obtained Canadian passport, according to Wikipedia.
38. 1992: Transferred to the University of Pennsylvania.
39. 1995: Enrolled briefly at Stanford, then co-founded Zip2.
40. 1999: Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million.
41. 2000-03: X.com merged with Confinity to form PayPal.
42. 2002: eBay acquired PayPal; Musk founded SpaceX; became a U.S. citizen.
43. 2004: Became a major funder of Tesla Motors.
44. 2006: Tesla introduced the Roadster.
45. 2008: Became CEO and product architect of Tesla.
46. 2010: Tesla IPO; Falcon 9 first launch.
47. 2012: Tesla introduced the Model S.
48. 2015: Co-founded OpenAI.
49. 2016: Co-founded Neuralink.
50. 2019-05: First batch of Starlink satellites launched.
51. 2020: Crew Dragon delivered Hurley and Behnken to the ISS.
52. 2022: Acquired Twitter.
53. 2023: Twitter rebranded as X; founded xAI.
54. 2024: Largest donor in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
55. 2025-01: Began service as Senior Advisor to the President and de facto head of DOGE.
56. 2025-05: Left the Trump administration.
57. 2025-11: Tesla approved a pay package worth up to $1 trillion.
58. 2026-06: SpaceX IPO at $135 a share, valuing the company at about $1.77 trillion; Musk reported as the first dollar-trillionaire.
59. 2026-08-14: Forbes estimated Musk's net worth at US$864 billion.

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